On March 3rd, Seminary of the Southwest welcomed the Very Rev. Lydia Kelsey Bucklin, president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity School, as the keynote speaker for the 2025 Payne-Harvey Lecture. Dean Bucklin delivered an address titled, ‘Not my Grandfather’s Church: Forming Leaders for Today.’
“This year we experimented with combining our Payne and Harvey lectures to have one event focused on mission and leadership in today’s church,” said Dr. Scott Bader-Saye, dean and president. “It was a perfect chance to bring the Very Rev. Lydia Kelsey Bucklin to campus. The Very Rev. Bucklin brought together her years of experience in the Diocese of Northern Michigan with her new vantage point as president and dean of Episcopal Divinity School to share a rich vision of the church we need to become—one in which mutual ministry, lay leadership, and grassroots creativity meet the world’s need for community and belonging.”
Watch the 2025 Payne-Harvey Lecture here.
Dean Bucklin also serves as Canon Theologian in the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan, and in her lecture she shared many of the initiatives in that diocese that address the needs of small church leadership. Her bishop, the Rt. Rev. Rayford Ray, was in attendance and preached earlier that day in Christ Chapel. Watch his sermon here.
“This lecture is just one of the many ways Southwest and EDS are partnering in places where our mission and our commitments overlap,” said Dean Bader-Saye. “I look forward to the work we will be able to do together.”
Since their creation, the Payne and Harvey Lectures have become lasting and vital resources for the seminary, bringing important and diverse theological voices to the Southwest campus. Historically two separate lectures at Southwest, scheduling challenges and the desire to keep February’s focus on Black History Month led to the decision to combine the lectures, which already shared thematic focus. Hosted by Seminary of the Southwest’s Board of Trustees, and led by the students of Seminary of the Southwest, the Payne-Harvey Lecture focuses on mission, leadership, and contemporary issues confronting the church. It honors the Rt. Rev. Claude E. Payne, former chair of the seminary’s board and bishop of the Diocese of Texas, retired, and the late Dean Hudnall Harvey, who died unexpectedly in 1972, after serving as the seminary’s dean for just five years.
